Ashes of the Night

OK, I'm late getting this review done ---- that's because I did not play the games from this developer in any sort of order. And this one is the first game from Wolfs Moon Studios, and what an excellent game it is. Like the other games, this one tells an excellent story. When games are long with lots to do like this one it is essential that the story is interesting (it is) and cohesively keeps everything together (it does). And the game is indeed huge with a ton of stuff to see, to do, to find, to use, and be surprised by. The characters are involving, and it is fun to see the direction the story takes them. Enemies/monsters are not the usual derivatives you see, but different with a great variety of them. So I never minded ---- in fact, enjoyed a little bit of grinding here and there. Seriously, this dev has a talent for creating what I think of as neo-classic rpgs of the old school variety with completely modern variations. Anyone who likes this style of game can't possibly go wrong with this title (or any from Wolfs Moon Studios). Give it a go ---- at the current price, it is an absolute steal and should be in your library.

For an RPG maker game it has potential but the developer could flesh it out to improve it.

Ashes of the Night is an interesting game with a good plot and good game mechanics. There is lots to do and interesting skills to achieve. I got stuck and posted a question in the steam discussion space and got a good timely answer back from the developer. Impressed that the developer still watches the posts especially since the game has been out for 2 or 3 years. I recommend this game.

The combat, class design, progression, and itemization are a stellar example for games in this genre.

I give it 6/10. Pros - I appreciate the stupid humor - The game feels well-balanced as you progress, and it's pretty long Cons - The maps are visually basic and you can walk over trees and stuff - A lot of the NPCs just vanish after you talk to them - Too many dialogues only use lower-case - A lot of the side-view enemies are on top of your characters - Some of the bosses approaching you are just flat images that flip flop towards you

I played this for 3 1/2 hours....and that's enough. The dev warned that this game is ugly and hilarious. I agree with the first one didn't find any funny things to conform the later one. A game could look ugly but still be fun to play....for an RPG the atmosphere/story is important. Storywise...nada it is just one small dungeon after the other. And between those are a few NPC standing around (guess what that is a town!!!). The whole world is so lifeless that nobody would lift a finger to save it. And don't be fooled by the big download...it's just that the dev can't use RPGMaker. Even for the low price I can't recommend this (hey there are FAR better RPGMaker games for free around).

This is Wolf Moon Studio's very first RPG Maker epic--and it shows, in some ways, such as how at the beginning, you find yourself on a screen where people AND random encounters are scattered about, and there's no semblance of the usual town = safe area, wilderness = monsters, like you're used to in almost every RPG. BUT, that's only at the very beginning. As you go along, you _do_ start running into proper towns (the first one you encounter covers several screens, in fact!) and merchants standing in doorways eventually become proper houses and shops you can go inside of. Basically: Don't let the primitive style of the very early game throw you off--he basically seems to have learned how to code in RPG Maker AS he was making this, and the later game is the results that speak for themselves. Anyway, full-on positives now: The characters are the usual Wolf's Moon-style charming motley rogue's gallery, there's that signature "the party doesn't like each other and swears their heads off randomly" (John: "I sense a great evil..." Jewel: "Duh, Maduin is like three steps away." XD) thing, the game's story ends up being WAY more epic than I thought, the world is fairly large, and at the end, it kinda felt like the same amount of story as the original Final Fantasy has, or maybe Dragon Quest 3. (These are both good things.) Yuka's AGGRESSIVE liking of Reinford (by the way: Make sure you have at least 50K gold on hand at one point for........reasons) and his telling the King that no, SHE rescued HIM, was adorable af... Oh, and level up until you get the later big bombastic skills. They're worth it. My fave is turning Duncan into a rampaging feral lightning beast for several turns, but they're all good. :) My verdict? For frick's sake, I paid less than ONE DOLLAR for this (on sale) and even OFF sale, it's still cheap! Definitely got my money's worth out of this one. Recommended!